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How special is YOUR bass?

#41
FatboyJ115 said:
As stated in the title, How special is YOUR bass?

What makes your bass different than the others? I don't really know what else to put in here, It's pretty self explanatory.

My bass isn't very special, to anybody outside of me. Just another Made in Japan SR885, which is by no means a "nothing special" bass, it really does sound fantastic, but I'm pretty sure at least a dozen others on here own one.

Now, let's see what makes your bass special, I'm hoping to see some amazing one-of-a-kind bass posts with pictures :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

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The black Jazz bass in this picture, while not really very unique, is special to me for personal reasons.

Back in 2001, I had just started dating the woman who would be my wife (and then, sadly, my ex-wife). I think we had been dating for about 6 months at the time. Anyway, she called me up one evening, she had just gotten back from hanging out with some co-workers and was a bit tipsy, and as usual she was cracking me up with her slightly drunk, stream-of-consciousness banter.

At one point she says, in a very hush-hush, don’t let anyone hear tone “I bought you something”.

I said “oh? What did you buy me?”

Her: “Secret! Hehehe! Find out tomorrow!”

So, the next day I pick her up, she directs me to where we are going, and it’s a pawn shop. We walk in, she plunks down $100, and says “I’m paying off that bass you guys are holding for me”. It’s a 2000 MIM Jazz, completely stock, with a gig back, for $225. I was floored. No one, other than my mom (and that was just once) has bought me a bass before. Most of my girlfriends couldn’t care less, but this one was clearly interested in music, was interested in supporting my music, and this was her way of showing it.

That bass was my main bass, and sometimes my only bass, ever since. I had made some mods to it: The stock pickups were replaced with Fender reissue ‘62s, I had a BAII bridge on it until recently, replaced the white p/g with a tort one, and later on swapped out the neck with one from my ’95 MIM Jazz (which she also bought me while visiting her family in Missouri). It’s a great bass, and while I don’t play it as much as I used to, it still gets some play time.
 
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#42
These are my Togar basses.Both very special to me for their beauty and play ability .I have had the pleasure of playing the walnut top for the last few years.The quilted maple recently joined the family.Pretty happy with this luthier.
togars.jpg
 
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#43
My bass is special, Pierre Laporte made it, one of the few he make every year.

Body is made from a block of yew wood (something can't find anywhere, sounds and look like mahogany on steroids)

Book matched ebony back and top from an ebony block (illegal nowadays)

Original Lane Poor 6 strings soapbars

36" scale, Low F# to G
20150606_085306.jpg
 
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#44
Which one? The EB-2 has a great story about how I got it. The Ric is a losing eBay bid and nobody bid against me. So I got it. The P followed me home because it was great sounding and great feeling. The 2013 EB was another losing eBay bid. The Canora is just so strange that I had to have it. Plus, it was cheap (there's a trend here). The 'Bird is a rewired Epiphone T-Bird pro that has been de-fretted and has Lace Alumatone pickups instead of the original active circuits. Special? None of them are particularly special, but they are unique enough for me.
 
#46
I inherited two of my Grandfather's Hammond organs, and they're special to me because of the memories. He was a bad-to the bone Chicago-area club player. I have a 1959 Chicago Musician's Federation Union card of his (that I found crammed in the back of his nightstand after he died) framed next to my very first (1981) Musician's Union Card. Neither of us were exactly enthusiastically pro-union, but we both carried them because we had to.

Of the dozen or so pre-CBS Fender basses I've owned, I kept two, because these two are truly special instruments, comparatively speaking, IMO. My Zion RAD Fretless is special because it's probably the only RAD Fretless Ken Hoover ever made, and it's a very good bass, IMO.

What I play (and enjoy) all the time? Ibanez Six-String and G&L Five-string basses, Telecasters made by G&L and Fender, (2/3rds of my Fender Teles are MIM), and I currently have a stable of three <$500 acoustic six-string guitars, all bought used at pawn shops, culled from the masses for their stable pitch, sonic character and playability. Not any of them special, but serviceable, do what I need with no problem, and worry-free in they're so replaceable. That in itself is "Special", IMHO.
 
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#47
As promised... Here's the MB-5 all blacked out:

Squier MB-5, blacked out

Squier MB-5, blacked out

Made in Indonesia, 2001.
22 count medium jumbo fretsMaple, C-Shape neck
Agathis contoured body...

Does the trick nicely when I need a 5-string! The ultra-light tuners and high-mass bridge solved the neck dive (the original intention when replacing the hardware) so I used that as the excuse to get rid of the chrome, and now I love it.
 
#50
I have a few that I consider special.

My P-Bass was my first piece of vintage gear and sparked my love for older instruments. I've played a bunch of gigs and recorded with it and it always delivers.


My jazz bass was vintage bass #2. I had it restored by John Kallas and it just slays in every way. I feel like I rescued it in a way lol.

Last is my newest bass, it's the first instrument I built myself entirety from raw materials. All the routing, carving and shaping was done by me. It has its flaws but I nailed the vibe I was going for. I plan on building another and improving a few details but this one will always be the first.

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#53
"I'm special...so special...I gotta have some of your attention...give it to me..."
-- The Pretenders, "Brass in Pocket" (1979)

Different instruments are special to me for different reasons. Those that didn't make the cut were jettisoned. Hopefully they're now "special" to someone else.
 
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#54
I have a few that are notable for one reason or another:

EBMM StingRay 4HH - one of the first made with a roasted maple neck.
Peavey T-40 #1 - fairly rare 8M serial number '78 in Sienna Burst w/original rectangular case. Almost new condition.
Peavey T-40 #2 - even more rare 6-digit serial number '78 - one of the first run of T-40s made, also with original rectangular case.
Ibanez RB-800 - has Phyllis Diller's autograph from when I played a run of shows with her.
Peavey Foundation - nothing remarkable about the bass itself, but I did get to jam with Ira Sullivan on it at a friend's place for a couple of hours.

None of my other basses are particularly unusual or special in any way, except for sentimental reasons or just because they're good players.
 
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#56
This bass is special cause its a cast away factory reject. Said to have a bad neck set or something of that nature. Purchased just the husk. Installed all the hardware and electronics and did the set up. This bass is bad @$$! Its my go to bass these days. I still have to install the bridge mini humbucker ( epiphone viola pu's ). Plays and sounds as good as any bass ive had. It's kinda like a stray dog. Give em a little love and they return it in spades. Only cost a little over $100.00 total
 

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#57
My basses may not look special, but all three of them are.

I took the active electronics out of the oldest, an Ibanez GSR200EX and modified it to accommodate fat strings for BEAD tuning. I did a lot of optimization, regarding neck to body joint and screening. It's a real player.

I modified the tone control of my G&L Tribute L2000 and fine tuned the nut by filing it to the desired hight.

The third one is a cheaper than cheap Chinese P Bass copy. It's kind of a project bass, which I made playable and stable. Here's a link to an article I published about it: Link Removed
 
#58
Well, I have two that probably qualify for the "Special" designation in the There's Probably None Other Like It In The World scenario: One is a parts bass with a ridiculously idiosyncratic configuration (brand new Warmoth Precision-shaped body w/ a figured maple top laminate, rear-loaded, with a single MusicMan-sized soapbar pickup slammed all the way back against the bridge, 20+ year old Warmoth 5-string lined fretless neck, tuned E-C, and a totally ghetto woodworking hack to make that modern body accept the 20+ year old neck), the other is a Warmoth Jazz-shaped body with a custom Michael Dolan 8-string neck.

Then I have one that's "Special" in that it's quite possibly and probably the only one Modulus ever built... but it also may be incredibly common, I've simply never seen nor heard of any other Modulus like it.

And then I also have a Rob Allen MB-2 which is "Special" in that Rob built it for specifically for me -- though admittedly it's no different than the MB-2 he builds for anybody else -- and also because my wife bought it for me for our wedding anniversary.
 
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#60
Maybe not the most special, but my bass is a Kramer XKB-20 in black. It's about 35 years old (they only made them for 2 years), and has the aluminum neck with the "tuning fork" headstock. It's USA made (increasingly rare to find these days). It's a 32" scale (I think).

So it's a vintage, American made, medium scale, single (P) pickup, aluminum neck bass from a limited production run of only 2 years. So maybe not a flying unicorn in terms of specialness, but I'd say it's fairly uncommon (which is one of the things that drew me to it). It was also the first bass I ever owned. And it's got a cool Ric meets P sound to it that I like a lot.
 
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